Working assets represent equipment which perform particular jobs for an organization and for which an organization is responsible. An organization's working assets may include, e.g., vehicles, machines, equipment, tools, etc. While working assets may be held out for sale to others and may eventually be sold to others, they need not be kept in a new, unused condition. Rather, an organization may temporarily assign or check out its working assets to various users so that the users can use the working assets.
An organization often feels a need to maintain its working assets in a proper operational condition. Maintenance may range from simple cleaning tasks, to preventive maintenance, to repair. Proper maintenance insures that the working assets continue to satisfactorily perform the jobs for which they are intended. Proper maintenance also enhances the value of the organization by preserving the value of the working asset itself and by nurturing a desirable image for the organization.
In addition, an organization often feels a need to respect the time spent by those who use the working assets. This need is particularly strongly felt in connection with rental organizations because the working asset users are customers, and future revenues to the organization may depend upon providing good customer service. But, all kinds of organizations, whether rental or otherwise, need to respect the time spent by working asset users because the high cost of labor urges the organizations to efficiently use their labor forces.
An organization often feels a need to provide security for its working assets. An organization's inventory of working assets represents a target to thieves and pilferers. The consequences of the theft or pilferage of working assets can be particularly serious when the working assets are expensive ones, such as vehicles or construction equipment.
Moreover, an organization often feels a need to maintain current and accurate information describing locations for its working assets. When working assets are mobile or portable, as in the case of vehicles, various items of construction and manufacturing equipment, and many tools, organization losses result from misplacing, losing, or otherwise being unable to quickly find working assets when needed.
Attempts have been made to adapt modern inventory management techniques to the management of working assets. For example, data describing Working assets are routinely collected in databases and processed by computers.
Conventional automated information collection systems used by modern inventory management systems are ineffective in connection with working assets. Conventional automated information collection systems are frequently adapted for use with inventories of retail and like goods rather than working assets. Thus, they typically obtain information related only to the identity of the goods and possibly a location of the goods. They may optionally rely upon an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system for some degree of security. Typically, they rely heavily upon point of sale (POS) terminals where particular goods are associated with particular customers, where information used to adjust inventory databases is automatically obtained, and where EAS devices associated with the goods are disabled.
Often, POS terminals are either not used in connection with assigning working assets to users or they are remotely located from the working assets when an assignment takes place. Consequently, numerous opportunities for mistakes in collecting information and arranging security are presented between an assignment of a working asset to a user and the user's actual possession and use of the working asset. Moreover, working assets are usually returned and user assignments revoked, a task which conventional POS terminals perform incompletely, inefficiently, or not at all. And, conventional automated information collection systems, such as POS terminals, have no automated way to obtain information which relates to working asset maintenance, working asset use, etc.
Due at least in part to the inadequacies of conventional automated information collection systems, the needs associated with the management of working assets have been addressed for better or worse through the implementation of systems and procedures that rely heavily upon human detection, human reporting, and human action. Typically, maintenance is performed either in accordance with a schedule or when involved persons report particular problems, Unfortunately, a schedule does not reflect the individual status of an individual working asset. Moreover, a user of an organization's working asset may not be motivated to notice or report particular problems. Security is often provided by human guards who may occasionally fail to notice an act of thievery or pilferage or may occasionally fail to take effective action. Location information is often provided by relying on personnel who are poorly motivated or poorly trained in organizational procedures. Such personnel are typically asked to make repetitive, accurate, and timely reports concerning their involvement with working assets. Such reports are routinely inaccurate, incomplete, and stale.
Consequently, conventional inventory management techniques are slow, inaccurate, and inefficient when applied to working assets. The conventional techniques lead to stolen, lost, or misplaced working assets, a lack of coordination between organization members involved with the assets, and a poor ability to make working assets meet user needs.